My first packer brisket, also my first post (pic heavy)

Long time lurker, first time poster. My first brisket cook spurred me to make my first post.

First, let me say that I don't want to be a carbon-copy of other posters' first posts, but I can't help it in certain respects. Mainly, how I could've have even began to cook a piece of meat like brisket without all of the information from posters on this forum. You all have been an invaluable resource for all of my cooks thus far- although I understand that, per forum rules of conduct, I've technically never cooked anything else but this brisket as no pictures of said cooks have been posted.

First, the meat. I live in Indianapolis. My in-laws are in southern Indiana. My father-in-law wanted some brisket for a chili cook-off that was part of their small town's festival. Seemed like a good reason to cook my first brisket. In fairness, I did cook a brisket flat a few months ago that turned out "OK" but a little dry. After further research on this forum, I realized that the flat has this tendency. Anyways, I called a few butcher shops in the area. I eventually went to a small "artesian" butcher shop called Goose the Market that had locally sourced brisket. It was about 14 lbs, it was considered a prime, and I payed way too much.



Since this was my first, I wanted to keep the rub simple. I used a 50-50 mixed of cracked pepper and Kosher salt. We were driving down after work on Friday so I put in on the egg around 2am, hoping it would take around 12-14 hours at about 250.

It ended up cooking quicker than expected. Around 11am SWMBO checked for tenderness at the thick part of the flat and said it was probing with basically no resistance. She's taken off pork butt before, so she did the standard FTC like a pro.



Due to travel and fair events when we got there, it actually sat in FTC state for about 6-7 hours. This was longer than I would've liked. When I finally cut into it at the in-laws, I was very pleased. After each cut along the flat, there was a waterfall of juices that poured out. Seeing that was probably the first time I felt like I'd had real success with a long cook.



As I said above, I never could have cooked something like this without all of the knowledge on this forum. Brisket (too me) was very intimidating. Being able to research my cook on this forum helped my confidence with this cook. 

Thanks guys.